Communicative and Methodological Challenges Related to Collecting Data with Older Adults with Dementia in Senior Living Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to researchers collecting data with older adults, particularly older adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). The goal of this article is to articulate the communicative and methodological challenges and lessons learned from collecting data with older adults in senior living communities with mild cognitive impairment and ADRD and their adult children (who were geographically separated) during the pandemic. Communication was much more than what we were studying; it was essential to the success and ethical implementation of our research.

Identification of thrombospondin 1 (TSP-1) as a novel mediator of cell injury in kidney ischemia.

Thrombospondin 1 (TSP-1) is a matricellular protein that inhibits angiogenesis and causes apoptosis in vivo and in vitro in several cancerous cells and tissues. Here we identify TSP-1 as the molecule with the highest induction level at 3 hours of IR injury in rat and mouse kidneys subjected to ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury using the DNA microarray approach. Northern hybridizations demonstrated that TSP-1 expression was undetectable at baseline, induced at 3 and 12 hours, and returned to baseline levels at 48 hours of reperfusion.

Regulation of fibroblastic growth factor 23 expression but not degradation by PHEX.

Inactivating mutations of Phex cause X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) by increasing levels of a circulating phosphaturic factor. FGF23 is a candidate for this phosphaturic factor. Elevated serum FGF23 levels correlate with the degree of hypophosphatemia in XLH, suggesting that loss of Phex function in this disorder results in either diminished degradation and/or increased biosynthesis of FGF23.